Mussorgsky, Modest Petrovich 1839 - 1881
Author: Saitoh, Noriko
Last updated：August 1, 2008
Author: Saitoh, Noriko
Russian composer. He is counted among "The Five" (also known as the Mighty Handful) of the Russian national school, alongside Balakirev, Cui, Rimsky-Korsakov, and Borodin. Among his piano works, Pictures at an Exhibition is particularly well-known.
Born into an old aristocratic family, his father served as a government official. He was the youngest of four siblings. From an early age, he received piano instruction from his mother and played works by Liszt and Field. At the age of 10, he moved with his family to St. Petersburg, where he studied piano with Henselt (a German pianist) and Anton Gerke (a pianist who studied under Field, Kalkbrenner, and Moniuszko, among others). Following the custom of the time for Russian aristocrats to become military officers or government officials, Mussorgsky also enrolled in a military academy. Although he did not study composition theory, he began composing around this time. It was also during this period that he became acquainted with Borodin, Cui, Balakirev, and the theorist Stasov.
In the latter half of the 1850s, Mussorgsky decided to dedicate himself to composition and resigned from military service. With the emancipation of the serfs in 1861, the Mussorgsky family, landowning aristocrats who had relied on estate management for their livelihood, suffered an economic blow. Consequently, he began working as a government official to support himself. Mussorgsky felt empathy for the peasants as fellow human beings and supported the free music school established by Balakirev in St. Petersburg. This life of composing while serving as a government official continued for over a decade, during which his pre-existing drinking habit worsened, ultimately shortening his life.
Works(21)
Piano Solo (9)
scherzo (3)
pieces (2)
character pieces (6)
Piano Ensemble (2)
etc (1)
opera (2)